74 FATIGUE OF THE PARTY. 



of tolerably fine light mould. Near here a party of 

 natives crossed the river, in the direction of those 

 we had first seen : perhaps to effect a junction of 

 forces and demand the meaning of our strano^e in- 

 trusion. We took an E. ^ N. direction across the 

 flat, but finding the ground very broken and stony, 

 intersected by deep watercourses, and rendered ad- 

 ditionally impracticable by high grass and thick 

 reeds, we were compelled, after getting half across, 

 to make the best of our way to the river. It was 

 intensely hot, not a breath of air stirring, and to 

 add to our misfortunes, we had inadvertently dined 

 off the contents of a canister of salt meat. We 

 reached the river at half-past five, being all of us 

 pretty well knocked up with heat, fatigue, and 

 thirst : one of our party, I heard afterwards, drank 

 nearly two quarts of water at a draught. 



Further on in this reach, I determined to occupy 

 quarters for the night ; it was wide and deep, trend- 

 ing E. by S., but shut in about a mile above our pre- 

 sent position by a dry patch of stones, with clear 

 banks on either side. As we were now in what ap- 

 peared to be a rather thickly populated district of the 

 country, it was requisite to choose a position beyond 

 the reach of sudden attack. Having consulted our 

 security as much as possible in this particular, I 

 took, before dark, the necessary bearings and 

 angles for the survey, and was delighted to observe 

 that the valley of the river again trended away to 

 the southward. We had a cool breeze after dark 



